‘Game Change’ Authors Writing Book About ‘Trump the Man’ and His Campaign ­ NYTimes.com
Business Day
‘Game Change’ Authors Writing Book About ‘Trump
the Man’ and His Campaign
Mark Halperin, left, and John Heilemann on a panel about their series on Showtime, “The Circus,” in January
2016.
RICHARD SHOTWELL / INVISION, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
By ALEXANDRA ALTER
MARCH 9, 2017
On election night last year, the political journalists and analysts Mark Halperin and
John Heilemann appeared on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and offered
stunned commentary to their ashen­faced host as Donald J. Trump’s victory
became clear.
“Outside of the Civil War, World War II and including 9/11, this might be the most
cataclysmic event the country’s ever seen,” Mr. Halperin said.
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‘Game Change’ Authors Writing Book About ‘Trump the Man’ and His Campaign ­ NYTimes.com
Given that assessment, it might seem surprising that Mr. Halperin has opted to re­
examine Mr. Trump’s tumultuous campaign in all its detail. But he and Mr.
Heilemann, the authors of the best­selling campaign books “Game Change” and
“Double Down,” are betting that there is still a strong appetite for an insider, blow­
by­blow account of the 2016 campaign.
On Thursday, Penguin Press announced that it had acquired their latest book,
which will explore Mr. Trump’s striking and unexpected rise to the presidency. The
book has also been purchased for a mini­series on HBO, which turned “Game
Change” into an original movie, with Julianne Moore as Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska
and Ed Harris as Senator John McCain. Like “Game Change,” the new mini­series
by HBO Films will be directed and executive produced by Jay Roach, and executive
produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman of Playtone Productions.
Mr. Halperin and Mr. Heilemann, who are also producers and hosts of “The
Circus,” a weekly documentary series on Showtime, will be entering crowded
terrain in revisiting last year’s campaign.
In the months since the election, several prominent political reporters have sold
memoirs and books promising an inside view of the race, including Katy Tur of
NBC News, who is writing a book about covering the Trump campaign, and Amy
Chozick of The New York Times, who is working on a memoir of her years covering
Hillary Clinton.
Mr. Halperin, who has covered eight presidential campaigns, insisted there was
plenty of fresh material.
“Trump in particular, as much as he’s covered and has been covered, in some ways
he’s an undercovered figure, in terms of Trump the man, and that’s one of the
things we’re going to do with the book,” he said.
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‘Game Change’ Authors Writing Book About ‘Trump the Man’ and His Campaign ­ NYTimes.com
Mr. Heilemann added, “We’ll be looking at all the big unanswered questions of the
race, some of them are obvious, some of them are less obvious, but of course we’re
interested in breaking news.”
The book is scheduled to be published in early 2018.
In a joint telephone interview, Mr. Halperin and Mr. Heilemann spoke about why
people will still be reading their book 50 years from now, and why they won’t ask
Alec Baldwin to audition for the role of Mr. Trump in the mini­series. The
following conversation has been edited and condensed.
Campaign reporting has changed since you published “Game Change.”
There are new online outlets and every twist and turn is reported in
real time. Is there that much that we don’t know, or any fresh ground to
cover in reliving the 2016 campaign?
MR. HALPERIN I dispute the premise a little bit. More stuff comes out now on
one level because of Twitter and other social media, but the fundamental principle,
what we tried to achieve with “Game Change” and “Double Down,” remains the
same. There’re people reporting on a lot of stuff, but the parade moves on so
quickly that there’s still plenty of room to double back and look for stories and
answers to things that you can’t get in real time.
The political news cycle is so punishing and relentless these days —
journalists and citizens can barely keep up with new revelations. What
value do you think there is in re­examining the campaign?
MR. HEILEMANN If you think again about the 2016 race, there are huge
questions. Even now, if you think about what is going on in the political arena
today, people are asking: What was the role of WikiLeaks in the campaign? Was the
Trump campaign collaborating with the Russians? Why did [F.B.I. Director James]
Comey do what he did? All those questions, people are talking about them right
now. Despite all the coverage, we don’t know the answers to those questions. We
think there’s still an awful lot to write about here.
Who would you cast to play Trump in the HBO mini­series, if Alec
Baldwin isn’t available?
MR. HALPERIN We’re not prepared to discuss that yet, that will be done in
conjunction with Playtone and HBO. But as great as Alec Baldwin is, the idea
behind this is less caricature, and more interesting dramatic portrayal that’s not a
cartoonish caricature.
So much has happened since the election, and since Inauguration Day,
that will color the way readers and viewers view the campaign in
hindsight. Will you nod to recent events in your book?
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‘Game Change’ Authors Writing Book About ‘Trump the Man’ and His Campaign ­ NYTimes.com
MR. HALPERIN Stay tuned. That’s a moving target. When we do these books,
we’re part journalists and part historians, and we’re very aware of the way people
consume media. People don’t want to read a book that’s completely divorced from
what happened since the campaign, but there’s certain judgments that have to be
made along the way about how to connect things thematically or factually to what’s
happened since the election. But we’ll primarily be writing about the campaign.
Do you think there might be fatigue among readers and viewers for a
long­form deconstruction of the presidential campaign?
MR. HEILEMANN I think you’re right that, like with every election, people have
a moment where they’re like, “I’m glad that’s over.” But I think the key is, Trump is
a figure of enormous fascination for people the world over. And how he pulled off
what is the most stunning and improbable political upsets of all time is a question
that I think people will be interested in. They’re interested today, they’ll be
interested a year from now, they’ll be interested 50 years from now. The one thing
we’re not worried about right now is that people will be bored by Donald Trump.
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